Officials urged to prosecute in Census attacks

Authorities report more than 700 violent acts in 2010 count

Citing more than 700 violent incidents against Census workers during the 2010 count, federal authorities urge local law enforcement officials to take action, saying some of the offenses have not been investigated or prosecuted.

Census Bureau Director Robert Groves and Commerce Department Inspector General Todd Zinser said in a letter circulated to hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the USA that Census workers were the victims of attempted shootings, assaults, robberies, carjackings and kidnappings. “While some crimes were ultimately investigated and successfully prosecuted,” the memo states, “others were not.”

The 700 incidents are a dramatic increase from the count in 2000, when there were about 180 attacks, according to the Census Bureau.

In a separate statement, the bureau said the workers’ “safety is a priority.”

“These workers are our friends and neighbors, who live and work in the areas they serve,’’ the bureau said.

In their letter to law enforcement, Groves and Zinser said that although assaults of Census employees are federal crimes, the offenses “are most often successfully prosecuted at the local level.”

The safety of Census field workers was thrust into the national spotlight in September 2009 when the body of a 51-year-old Kentucky Census worker was found hanging from a tree in the Daniel Boone National Forest.

The word “fed’’ was scrawled across the man’s chest, initially raising concerns that he might have been targeted because of his affiliation with the federal government. It was later determined that Bill Sparkman staged his own death to make it appear like a homicide.

The Census Bureau said that although violence and “threats of violence against Census field representatives are relatively rare (workers logged about 100 million home visits as part of the 2010 count), such threats do exist.”

Last year, a 62-year-old Tennessee man was convicted of assaulting a Census worker during a home visit in June 2010. The assailant allegedly took the keys to the worker’s vehicle and directed the employee to a room on his property. In the room, the assailant brandished a blowtorch, before allowing the worker to leave.

“You know the inherent safety and security uncertainties of approaching a residence or establishment, yet this is what is expected of Census employees on a continual basis,” Groves and Zinser wrote to law enforcement officials.